Topgolf is your competition but here’s how you can beat them.
Topgolf has taken golf from stuffy to casual-cool. With zero pressure on your performance (or who you are), players flock to the new age driving range for many reasons. Whether they’re serious golf athletes who want to perfect their swing, or a group of friends looking for a new social activity on the weekends, you’ll find them all under the Topgolf net. What’s even more alluring is that there’s no pressure to play a lengthy game - you can play for as short as 30 min. There’s also the entire fact that you have a dedicated server at your bay to take your orders, and the drinks are usually flowing.
Topgolf is your competition but here’s how you can beat them.
1. Time is precious.
How many times have you read that one of the biggest barriers when converting prospects to members isn’t just money - it’s also time. Your members, no matter if they currently employed or are happily retired, still have other responsibilities to balance in addition to club membership. If you respect their time, they’ll appreciate your Club.
One way to respect their time is to introduce elements of self-service to them. When we consider Topgolf, we probably think of how easy it is to make a reservation. You just pull up their website on your desktop or mobile phone (or maybe even the Topgolf app), and before you know it you’ve reserved a bay for you and your party.
Now, ask yourself: is it that easy for members to make reservations at your club? If not, how much business might you be losing out to venues like Topgolf where it’s easy to make reservations?
A lot of you are probably thinking: “our members like calling the club to make reservations.” We aren’t talking about eliminating the high-touch experience you provide them. We’re talking about enhancing it while also making it easier to deliver. You might not realize how much your members are using their mobile phones to make purchases and perform transactions.
The evidence is getting clearer each year: your members are using their phones to conduct business. They can easily use their phones to go to places like Topgolf. And they are accustomed to the convenience that mobile apps provide. Your members’ mobile phones are a great tool - one that you probably didn’t know you have at your disposal. How much longer can your Club afford not to exist on the mobile landscape?
2. Consider year-round usage of facilities.
Let’s say you join the growing ranks of clubs that now utilize a mobile app as a means of member engagement. And, let’s take things a step further and suppose you also install tee sheet reservations software, meaning your members can book tee times at their convenience. After a season of using it, your club experiences an uptick in member usage of your course - perhaps to the point that you forestall that dues increase your board has been pondering. But what to do during the offseason? After all, places like Topgolf are open 12 months a year - and here in Cincinnati those heated bays are welcome on a cold winter afternoon.
One solution is to make your club a year-round facility. That doesn’t mean people are hitting the fairways in December. But they still have a reason to show up all year long. For instance, we spoke to a GM at a club up north who is opening a year-round enclosed golf facility. This space would house an indoor driving range that could be used even when the course had snow on it. Now, members at the club don’t have an off-season from the club. Instead, they have a reason to stay engaged throughout the year, and the club has a year-round revenue stream.
3. Make F&B Orders easier.
Okay, so now imagine that you took our first two suggestions to heart and implemented them. Your members now make reservations for lessons at your year-round golf center. But won’t your members also want to order a meal or a drink when they’re at the driving range? You might think this whole thing is just a recipe for inefficiency and confusion. It doesn’t have to be.
Let’s go back to our discussion on mobile phones and the convenience they foster. Have you ever ordered food from a mobile app? Wasn’t it easy? Didn’t it cut down on hassle? Mobile food orders may have seemed novel a few years ago, but each of us can probably attest from personal experience that mobile ordering is incredibly ubiquitous now.
Even private clubs are adopting mobile F&B ordering. Consider the following use case: your members arrive at the club, maybe to use that new golf facility or to play 18 holes. While they are on-site, they receive a push notification via their club’s mobile app, notifying them of a special at the clubhouse. They can modify and submit their order from the app, and it’s ready for them once they’re done playing. Maybe it’s an dine-in order, or perhaps it’s a to-go order for their family - either way, your Club has just made it easier for them to 1.) order a meal (and who doesn’t love that?) and 2.) stay engaged with your club. After all, the money spent on that mobile F&B order was going to be spent somewhere. And your club just captured that additional revenue from your member.
4. Get to know your members.
Alright, let’s say your Club has turned our first several suggestions into reality. Congratulations - you’ve begun to level the playing field against entertainment venues like Topgolf. Now, let’s really take the fight to them.
One of your advantages to always keeps in mind is that as a private club, your members present great opportunities for continual engagement. When your members make purchases at your club - from the dining room to the pro shop - you can build up a profile on them which can inform your marketing efforts. Here’s a common use case: a golf club manufacturer partners with the pro shop for a demo day. The pro shop is able to market to members who might be interested in going to this event because they know their purchase history. Meanwhile, the members appreciate that you cared enough to market to their interests. You’ve again established yourself as a trusted, go-to partner for them.
5. Focus on your families.
Lastly, let’s revisit a point we made earlier in this blog post: your members have family responsibilities to balance, so a club membership has to fit into those responsibilities. At first, it might seem that your Club is not well-positioned against entertainment venues. After all, isn’t it easier to just take the family somewhere for an afternoon? How could a club compete for the time, attention (and revenue) of an entire family?
In fact, there are a lot of ways your Club can cater to families. Beyond the mobile F&B orders mentioned above, family engagement can shape the amenities your club offers. Consider programs that cater to kids. Maybe it’s a summer golf league for the middle-school aged children of your members. Or maybe it’s a youth golf instruction program. In fact, why stop there? It could be extended to tennis, swimming - your options aren’t limited to just golf. Regardless of the form it takes, if you can give members a reason to take their entire family to your Club, you not only help justify their membership, you may even cultivate a new generation of members.
So, in closing, you can take on entertainment venues like Topgolf and compete for the discretionary income (and time) of your members. All it takes is playing to the strengths of your Club. All of these suggestions might seem daunting when taken together. But you’re probably already doing each of them to some degree. Mobile app and mobile ordering technology is on the rise among clubs, as is the construction of year-round facilities. And who among us hasn’t read about the necessity of capturing moms and Millennials through expanded offerings that encompass the entire family? Odds are, these are all things you’ve pondered.
Well, now it’s time to take action. The golf entertainment venues that have sprung up in recent years do pose challenges. But if you’re in it to win it, you can come out ahead - and Clubessential will be by your side.